John 5 - More than Jesus healing a lame man by the pool

In the Year C of the Episcopal Lectionary, the first nine verses of John’s fifth chapter are read.  After that, nothing is read of this chapter.

It is important to grasp how Jesus not once touched this man that John reported had been lame for thirty-eight years.

According to what is commonly read, all Jesus did was ask the lame man, “Do you want to get well?” 

This is a misleading translation, as the Greek word Theleis is capitalized, which importantly says, “You desire” or “Desire you” (although “Want” and “Wish” are equally translatable).  The three words asked by Jesus can translate as this: “Desire you restored to be married?”  That is because the Aorist verb genesthai is rooted in “to cause to be” from “gen”-erate.”  Thus, Jesus asked the lame man if he “Desired to be born again from above.”

After the man said he had nobody to help him get into the pool, Jesus then commanded (again in a capitalized word, Egeire), “Raise (up)” or “Be Awakened.” 

This is the same command Peter (while with John of Zebedee) told the lame man outside the Temple to likewise be “Elevated,” saying, “in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.”  Both Peter and Jesus said “egeire kai peripatei,” but in Acts 3 the words egeire kai are bracketed, which means Peter did not actually speak those words.  Instead, the brackets reflect a spiritual transfer spoken by Peter (who was divinely possessed by the soul of Jesus), such that both lame men received the soul-spirit of Jesus and became reborn from above.

Jesus told the man by the pool in Bethesda to “take up your mat and walk,” where Peter simply said “walk.” The importance of kai (and) is it emphisizes the unspoken added presence of Jesus that “raised” the lame man outside the Temple by becoming another soul with his (Jesus and) the man. 

Both lame men were commanded to “walk,” where the word peripatei figuratively means, “to live, deport oneself, follow (as a companion or votary)” (Strong’s).  This says being “Raised” or “Reborn” is for the purpose of being led as a newborn Jesus that has been “Risen” in flesh, so the host soul-body is no longer ‘bed-ridden’ by the evils of the world.  It becomes “Raised” to “live” in the name of Jesus and “follow” his inner whispers.

This element of following is seen when Jesus told all those who “walked” behind him, when he scolded Peter, saying to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”  Jesus then told all his disciples and followers (including Peter), “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:23-25). 

In this, "Raised" means to have a stake or cross in a vineyard firmly planted into the ground, so it can bear the weight of plump, full good fruit hanging from the vine. Jesus is the vine. Yahweh is the root from which the vine grows and is sent forth. To not be a "Raised" stake or cross, then the weight of the world pulls down the vine, so the fruit lays on the ground (like on a "mat," where (like Yahweh told Cain, whose "countenance had fallen"), "sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it" (Genesis 4:7b).

This says a soul that refuses to be reborn as Jesus had “married” Satan (not Yahweh).  That is the “stumbling block” to becoming Jesus reborn.  By not being divinely possessed by Jesus’ soul, the human brain is incapable of having “in mind the concerns of God [Yahweh].” 

To “deny” oneself means to stop being egocentric and release one's soul to Yahweh and be reborn as His Son.  This is both a death of self (cross as a crucifix), but more importantly the “raised cross” or “elevated stake” in the ground that is intended to be the support upon which grapevines grow. One must "walk" in ministry, in the name of Jesus, becoming the support others need to be "Raised" in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Ministry as Jesus reborn allows one to produce good fruit, keeping that which has fallen to the ground (where mats and beds are) from remaining "crouched at Satan's doorway." 

With the “cross” of Jesus’ soul “Raising” one’s soul-body, then one “denies” self and “follows” what the soul of Jesus commands.  Only with Jesus’ soul reborn into one’s soul-body can one be “saved” from the sins of Satan.  To “lose one’s life for Jesus [is] to be reborn,” then Jesus will become the Advocate that ensures one’s soul “will find” eternal life with him one with a soul forevermore.

To end this now, before going into other elements of John 5 that must be seen in support of what I have stated above, when Jesus sent out the twelve (and the seventy) [all in pairs], he told them, “freely you received, freely give [or offer]” (Matthew 10:8c-d).  This must be understood as Jesus giving his soul-spirit to become one with the soul-body of each of the twelve (including Judas Iscariot).  This must be realized that the soul of Jesus was made by Yahweh with the intent to have His Son’s soul fill many soul-bodies at the same time.  This means an infinite number of Jesuses can “walk” in ministry in his name.  It is the power of Yahweh to create this. 

It is the wiles of Satan that tricks the brains of human beings into thinking there can only be one Jesus.  That is the stumbling block. 

As such, when Jesus gave each the “power [authority] to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness” (Matthew 10:1), this meant each one of them had themselves “received freely” the “authority” of Jesus within themselves to “cast out” Satan and his stumbling blocks that arrive as “unclean spirits.”  Each disciple became healthy of body, so they could encounter those of “disease” and “sickness” without fear.  Because they had “freely received” this gift of Jesus’ soul within, they were expected to “follow” Jesus’ inner commands and be led to those of faith in need of Jesus to come and “freely give” his soul to those of faith.

Thus, this "lame man" becomes more than one man who spent a significant time by a pool, waiting for an angel to stir healing waters. The "lame man" is metaphor for all human beings, especially those calling themselve Christians, who walk behind Jesus, dragging their cross of sins in their wake. To be healed means to be Saved eternally from sin and be reborn as Jesus. To get to that point, one must hear the question posed as Jesus speaking to YOU, asking, "Do you Desire to be born again from above?"

It requires ACTS to answer that question. It demands, "Walk! in the name of Jesus.

Read more? John 5:10-15 - Being one with Jesus